when we declare that we want to hold a
specific value or characteristic in
ourselves life here is that and says all
right here are some opportunities for
you to practice that the other day I was
rehearsing this talk in my room and my
mom noticed that I was struggling to
memorize all of my material so she left
my room to get me something that she
thought would help when she came back
she said jr. I’m gonna give this to you
but you need to promise me that you’re
not gonna break this tape recorder I
thought for a second is this a joke but
when I realized she was serious I said
this is a bit 80s and smartphones exist
but this is a typical teenage response
when her mom is only trying to help and
you must be thinking what could the
seventeen-year-old possibly teach me
probably nothing new to be honest with
you but through my life experience I’d
like to share an idea and my idea is
this right now when I said life hears
you and says all right here are some
opportunities for you to practice that
what does that mean it means life is
always going to throw those challenges
at you couple challenges I’ve faced
recently are dealing with my own
self-worth and keeping a present mindset
in just the last couple of months I’ve
lost my pet rabbit a couple of friends
and my first love what we think about
becomes real and I’d asked myself what
did I do wrong
what could I have done when will this
feeling ever go away and I’d think about
this a lot over and over again but it
was okay throughout high school I’ve
made and lost a lot of friends and with
these losses came a little bit of
heartbreak I’m sure all of us have
over a year ago I lost one of my closest
friends there was too much conflict to
make that one friendship healthy and I
left it behind I left our mutual friends
behind too I felt awful I didn’t want to
do this but I did now I’m telling you
this because for a while I wondered what
my life would have been like with them
still in it
I thought about all that I’d missed out
on all that I was gonna keep missing out
on one piece of advice people might give
you when you feel this way would be to
distract yourself but if distracting
yourself means to take your focus off of
what’s important I don’t want to do that
I want to bring my focus towards
something else that’s important to me
I’m an archer archery is 80% mental so I
can have all the technique in the world
but if my mind is not set on the center
of my target my arrows will not be
either but when I can really focus and
lose myself in that activity that
bullseye comes easy now focusing on the
bullseye is a great way for me to
reflect on my mindset but not all of us
are archers and sometimes I’m just on
the bus or in school or at home and I
can’t just pick up my bow and start
shooting at a target so there are other
tools we can use to align ourselves with
something like meditation dance art
music anything you can invest yourself
in deeply enough to feel good and can be
really great to be present it can feel
amazing but being present doesn’t always
mean feeling happy so people might ask
well why would I want to be present if
it does it doesn’t ensure my joy because
the purpose of presence is not to be
happy if we were happy all the time our
other emotions would get a little
jealous and the purpose of presence is
to create a healthy balance of all of
our emotions there’s value to each part
of us and sometimes we need to sit in
that uncomfortable feeling to get more
comfortable with ourselves and while it
may hurt or when while it may have hurt
to see how other people don’t see you
the way you want them to it can be
really hard to love yourself but that’s
okay so I want you guys to ask
yourselves right now and you’re gonna
repeat after me because I don’t want
anyone at home thinking that my live
audience fellows
sleeeeep ask yourselves repeat after me
am I good enough tell yourselves yeah
I’m good enough it’s not about
convincing me as a speaker or her or him
or the camera men around this room
it’s about convincing yourself now if
people are saying things about you that
make you feel awful or if you’re going
through stuff in your life that makes
you feel like you’re not worth it think
about a $20 bill this $20 bill has
probably been sat on hundreds of times
has been dropped on the floor people
have torn it have held it and wished oh
man I wish this was more money but no
matter what it goes through it’s always
gonna be $20 so it doesn’t matter what
happens to you it doesn’t matter what
people say or think about you your value
cannot change based upon any of these
things just like this $20 bill when I
was going through problems with my
friends and earlier on in high school my
mind was stuck in the past I don’t learn
that when my focus jumped from past
devastation in a future worry my stress
and depression were heightened but it is
a waste of time to focus on what happens
yesterday or tomorrow it’s a waste of
time to think about what’s gonna happen
in the future that doesn’t exist or to a
past that no longer matters what does
matter is right now I’ve rewritten this
talk dozens of times and every time I’ve
practiced it out loud it’s felt wrong
without telling you this just a few
weeks ago I fell to my knees in the
middle of the school hallway and I cried
through my entire fourth period but it
and I was always afraid of letting
people see my tears because I believed
it to be a sign of weakness but I did
not cry because I was weak I cried
because I had been strong for so long
and I just activated the worst thing
imaginable and that’s a time machine
when you activate your time machine
things happen where you think about the
past or the future I went back I thought
about everything from my beautiful
rabbit suddenly dying to my boyfriend
breaking up
and then I went forward and I can see
myself having a miserable time at prom
without a date or a group of friends to
go with I had a great time I prompt by
the way so it didn’t really matter but
in that moment I just needed to remind
myself that well being present might be
a little easier said than done sometimes
that doesn’t make it impossible so if
there’s one thing I can give to you guys
to take away from my experience it’s
that our focus becomes reality
and awareness is progress so if you
notice yourselves drifting from presents
it’s okay to forgive yourself and begin again
specific value or characteristic in
ourselves life here is that and says all
right here are some opportunities for
you to practice that the other day I was
rehearsing this talk in my room and my
mom noticed that I was struggling to
memorize all of my material so she left
my room to get me something that she
thought would help when she came back
she said jr. I’m gonna give this to you
but you need to promise me that you’re
not gonna break this tape recorder I
thought for a second is this a joke but
when I realized she was serious I said
this is a bit 80s and smartphones exist
but this is a typical teenage response
when her mom is only trying to help and
you must be thinking what could the
seventeen-year-old possibly teach me
probably nothing new to be honest with
you but through my life experience I’d
like to share an idea and my idea is
this right now when I said life hears
you and says all right here are some
opportunities for you to practice that
what does that mean it means life is
always going to throw those challenges
at you couple challenges I’ve faced
recently are dealing with my own
self-worth and keeping a present mindset
in just the last couple of months I’ve
lost my pet rabbit a couple of friends
and my first love what we think about
becomes real and I’d asked myself what
did I do wrong
what could I have done when will this
feeling ever go away and I’d think about
this a lot over and over again but it
was okay throughout high school I’ve
made and lost a lot of friends and with
these losses came a little bit of
heartbreak I’m sure all of us have
over a year ago I lost one of my closest
friends there was too much conflict to
make that one friendship healthy and I
left it behind I left our mutual friends
behind too I felt awful I didn’t want to
do this but I did now I’m telling you
this because for a while I wondered what
my life would have been like with them
still in it
I thought about all that I’d missed out
on all that I was gonna keep missing out
on one piece of advice people might give
you when you feel this way would be to
distract yourself but if distracting
yourself means to take your focus off of
what’s important I don’t want to do that
I want to bring my focus towards
something else that’s important to me
I’m an archer archery is 80% mental so I
can have all the technique in the world
but if my mind is not set on the center
of my target my arrows will not be
either but when I can really focus and
lose myself in that activity that
bullseye comes easy now focusing on the
bullseye is a great way for me to
reflect on my mindset but not all of us
are archers and sometimes I’m just on
the bus or in school or at home and I
can’t just pick up my bow and start
shooting at a target so there are other
tools we can use to align ourselves with
something like meditation dance art
music anything you can invest yourself
in deeply enough to feel good and can be
really great to be present it can feel
amazing but being present doesn’t always
mean feeling happy so people might ask
well why would I want to be present if
it does it doesn’t ensure my joy because
the purpose of presence is not to be
happy if we were happy all the time our
other emotions would get a little
jealous and the purpose of presence is
to create a healthy balance of all of
our emotions there’s value to each part
of us and sometimes we need to sit in
that uncomfortable feeling to get more
comfortable with ourselves and while it
may hurt or when while it may have hurt
to see how other people don’t see you
the way you want them to it can be
really hard to love yourself but that’s
okay so I want you guys to ask
yourselves right now and you’re gonna
repeat after me because I don’t want
anyone at home thinking that my live
audience fellows
sleeeeep ask yourselves repeat after me
am I good enough tell yourselves yeah
I’m good enough it’s not about
convincing me as a speaker or her or him
or the camera men around this room
it’s about convincing yourself now if
people are saying things about you that
make you feel awful or if you’re going
through stuff in your life that makes
you feel like you’re not worth it think
about a $20 bill this $20 bill has
probably been sat on hundreds of times
has been dropped on the floor people
have torn it have held it and wished oh
man I wish this was more money but no
matter what it goes through it’s always
gonna be $20 so it doesn’t matter what
happens to you it doesn’t matter what
people say or think about you your value
cannot change based upon any of these
things just like this $20 bill when I
was going through problems with my
friends and earlier on in high school my
mind was stuck in the past I don’t learn
that when my focus jumped from past
devastation in a future worry my stress
and depression were heightened but it is
a waste of time to focus on what happens
yesterday or tomorrow it’s a waste of
time to think about what’s gonna happen
in the future that doesn’t exist or to a
past that no longer matters what does
matter is right now I’ve rewritten this
talk dozens of times and every time I’ve
practiced it out loud it’s felt wrong
without telling you this just a few
weeks ago I fell to my knees in the
middle of the school hallway and I cried
through my entire fourth period but it
and I was always afraid of letting
people see my tears because I believed
it to be a sign of weakness but I did
not cry because I was weak I cried
because I had been strong for so long
and I just activated the worst thing
imaginable and that’s a time machine
when you activate your time machine
things happen where you think about the
past or the future I went back I thought
about everything from my beautiful
rabbit suddenly dying to my boyfriend
breaking up
and then I went forward and I can see
myself having a miserable time at prom
without a date or a group of friends to
go with I had a great time I prompt by
the way so it didn’t really matter but
in that moment I just needed to remind
myself that well being present might be
a little easier said than done sometimes
that doesn’t make it impossible so if
there’s one thing I can give to you guys
to take away from my experience it’s
that our focus becomes reality
and awareness is progress so if you
notice yourselves drifting from presents
it’s okay to forgive yourself and begin again
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